


the waiting game

by Yellow



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-04
Updated: 2014-06-04
Packaged: 2018-02-03 11:03:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1742456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yellow/pseuds/Yellow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I won’t lie to you. Being a doctor is still my dream. But I have a feeling my friends will need me soon; they’re all off fighting. I need to be able to fight with them!” Leorio says, voice cracking a little. </p><p>-what leorio has done for his friends. set before the Election Arc.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the waiting game

**Author's Note:**

> screams about leorio

Leorio waits.

 

It’s been months since he left Yorknew City. Medical school only gets harder, and he studies more and more with every exam. Still, Leorio makes friends easily and it’s not long before he has a small social circle at school, one he shoots the shit with and drinks with until it’s 2 am. None of them know he’s a Hunter. None of them know why.  
Leorio still looks at the picture of him, Gon, Killua, and Kurapika that’s sitting on his nightstand every night before slipping into sleep.

Gon and Killua send him letters every so often. They even call once, and Leorio feels a weight lift as he hears their voices. Gon chirps at him and Killua drawls and for a moment Leorio pretends he doesn’t hear how their voices have deepened, not only with age, but with hardship.

“You still have my address?” Leorio asks, voice kept intentionally light. “You know you can call anytime, or even swing by, right?” 

“Of course, Leorio!” Gon echoes, and then Killua is mumbling in the background. 

“Looks like we have to go,” Gon says, and Leorio’s throat tightens.

“Okay. Be safe, you kids.” 

“Bye, Leorio!” Gon yells, and Leorio hangs up before Gon can. It’s a while before he gets to sleep that night.

 

It’s somewhere between hearing rumors about East Gorteau falling and passing the one year anniversary of his last contact with Kurapika that Leorio decides he needs to learn Nen, properly this time. He goes back to his old “teacher” reluctantly, but he goes.

She opens the door; he thinks she’s even more hunched than last time. But her eyes are as sharp as they were the first time they met and Leorio knows she could kill him in seconds. 

He turns his gaze down. She gives no visible sign of recognizing him. 

“Please, sensei,” he says, voice low. “Teach me Nen.” He sees her eyes sharpen. He knows the truth now and she can see it.

Still, she lifts her chin, stubborn. “Why should I?” she scoffs. “What has changed? Why were you so long in returning?”

“I won’t lie to you. Being a doctor is still my dream,” he says, eyes level. “But I have a feeling my friends will need me soon; they’re all off fighting. I need to be able to fight with them!” Leorio says, voice cracking a little. 

The woman scans his face, then nods. Leorio sighs so deep he can feel his legs buckle. She smiles. 

“When do you get out of classes tomorrow?”

“Four,” Leorio says.

“Four then.”

He nods enthusiastically, and almost hitting her with his briefcase, he turns and bolts up the walk. 

 

Months pass and Leorio progresses. His master tells him he has talent, and implies he could improve even more rapidly if he dropped out of medical school, but Leorio says no, polite but clipped, and it is the end of the conversation. 

He takes the leaf test and finds he is an emitter. His master is a manipulator, but Leorio’s pleased all the same; he’d have different strengths than the others. He grins and thinks to himself, now all we need is a manipulator. Preferably not sensei.

 

Leorio studies and trains and waits and calls, and hears nothing. He worries, always, about Kurapika, but at the same time has given him up as a lost cause as far as initating contact goes. The fact that Gon and Killua have been out of touch for months chills Leorio to the bone, though, and four months after he gets his last letter from them even his master comments on his harried appearance.

Leorio sighs. “I haven’t heard from them in months.”

She looks past him. “They’re not going to be helped by you worrying. Your drills were sloppy; I want you to repeat them.”

“Yes,” Leorio says, slipping into stance with a sigh.

“But Leorio,” she says, eyes warm. “You’ve improved greatly. When the day comes that they need you, you will be ready.”

Leorio’s heart thuds and it takes all his self-control not to break stance and hug her. That, and the knowledge he’d be blown back onto his ass.

“And that’s the last compliment for this year!” she yells. “Back into stance!”

“Yes!” 

 

He gets a call once at 3 am. Leorio almost doesn’t answer, but he’s awake, poring over his books, and he makes a habit of answering every call he gets, from any number.

Still, he’s pissed off because he’s sleepy and he has a test and he already knows he’s getting three hours of sleep, so he answers the phone with a very curt hello. 

For a second there’s just breathing on the line, shaky breathing bordering on hyperventilation.

“Hello?” Leorio snaps again. “If there’s no one there I’ll hang up.”

“Leorio,” the voice says, barely able to form the word.

“Kurapika?” Leorio asks, so startled he stands up, knocking his books over. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Where are you? I can be on a flight right now!” 

Kurapika takes another shaky breath.

“I’m fine, Leorio, I’m really fine.”

“You don’t sound fine!” he yells. “Are you having trouble breathing?”

“No…yes,” he says, voice tinny on the phone. “I think it’s just the shock.”

“So you are hurt!” Leorio yells triumphantly. Then he sets his brow, voice dropping low and concerned. “Kurapika. Where. Are. You.”

“I told you, I’m not hurt. Just.” He pants for a moment. “Bad fight. Lots of bad fights. I’m just…having a bad day.”

Leorio is silent.

“This was a mistake,” Kurapika says. 

“Wait! Don’t you dare hang up on me! Lie down right now until you can breathe properly.”

Kurapika chuckles gently. “I guess I really just needed someone to worry about me.” Leorio can hear his breathing returning to normal, the panic that was evident in his voice subsiding. 

Leorio growls. “You idiot. I’m always worrying about you.”

Kurapika doesn’t speak for a minute. Leorio can hear him swallow, then hear fabric rubbing, his earring clinking against the receiver. 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he says, and Leorio can hear his throat close up, and he knows what’s coming next.

“Wait! Don’t-” and then Leorio hears a click.

He stares at the phone a minute, then throws it against the wall. 

He picks it up; it’s unharmed. It’s a Beetle, after all. Leorio stares at the number on the screen, and tries it over and over, books abandoned, until he falls asleep.

 

The next day is a Wednesday. Lucky for him, it’s the day he spars with other students. He’s felt his master’s eyes on him since he walked in, and after he one-shots three students who had been giving him trouble she raises a brow. 

“It’s easier when I’m pissed off,” he mutters, and she lets it go. He sees the look on her face, though, a little impressed but also gleeful, and inwardly groans. His drills’ll be harder next week, he guarantees it. 

 

He hates them sometimes, not for leaving, not even for leaving without him, but for not letting him help. But he knows the moment they need it, he’ll be there. He’ll be ready. 

Until that day, Leorio keeps an eye on the news, an eye on the Hunter Association. He mails them his address whenever it changes, and picks up calls from any number. Leorio studies hard, and trains. Someday, there’ll be a battle. He can feel it. Then they’ll be together again, and they’ll need his fighting and his healing. They’ll be together again soon and Leorio awaits that day with joy and dread.

Until then.

 

Until then, Leorio waits.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Waiting Game [podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4156230) by [litrapod (litra)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/litra/pseuds/litrapod)




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